our house remodel: the office

If you’ve been following along, you know that we’re planning to remodel our 1955 ranch home on the east side of Madison, WI. We’ve already talked about the new floor plan and design for the primary bedroom. We now continue our tour into the office – welcome!

Much like the room choice for the primary bedroom was obvious, the office knew its role from the beginning as well. Though its small footprint could also work well as a nursery or child’s bedroom. As you can see here, the previous two owners showed this room with a twin bed.

When we bought the house, we decided this room would serve as my office. While I had furniture pieces that technically fit in the space, the room really didn’t function very well.

And we all know how I feel about that. So…to the drawing board we went! Having used the space for a few months, I knew it needed these three things:

• a window seat for Willow
• closed storage for supplies and a hidden printer
• enough desk surface to fit a laptop and a freestanding monitor

We knew this iteration of the room would not be forever, so we kept the budget affordable. Incredibly, the combination of the Billy bookcase and a laminate countertop from IKEA sits just at window height for Willow. AND their Micke desk would just barely fill in the remaining length of the wall. Like, literally, within a half inch. And yes, in fact I did re-measure everything about a thousand times before pressing submit on that order – ha!

This left the opposing wall open for more of that closed storage we need. Namely, the hidden printer. Now folks, I have dreamed of a vintage mid-century credenza for a very, very long time. When I realized this would be a great spot for the printer AND could actually fit into both this and the future vision for this office?! It took 2.5 seconds to decide to stretch the budget a little.

Someday, when the budget allows, we may consider adding custom millwork to the space. A wall-to-wall desktop is supported by a centered storage cabinet. Floating shelves fill the wall space above the desk.

We kept the walls neutral to allow the wood tones to anchor the space. These heavier feeling wood tones balance out the levity of the floating desktop and shelves. Finally, the books, area rug, and artwork add just the right touch of bold color to the space.

Who’s excited for the next stop on the tour? Up next….the bathroom!